Nell Gwynn

Jessica Swale

Nigel Hess

Composer

Nigel Hess works extensively as a composer for television, theatre, film and the concert hall. He has composed music for twenty Royal Shakespeare Company productions (including the current West End runs of Love’s Labour’s Lost and Much Ado About Nothing) and received the New York Drama Desk Award for Much Ado and Cyrano de Bergerac on Broadway. Previous scores for Shakespeare's Globe have included The Merry Wives of Windsor, Romeo and Juliet, Henry VIII and The Knight of the Burning Pestle.

Nigel has scored numerous American and British television productions, including A Woman of Substance, Vanity Fair, Campion, Maigret, Dangerfield, Just William, Wycliffe, Ballykissangel and New Tricks. He has received the Ivor Novello award twice for Best TV Theme (Hetty Wainthropp Investigates and Testament), and is well-known to Classic FM listeners for his film soundtrack to Ladies in Lavender played by violinist Joshua Bell and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra which was nominated for a Classical Brits award.

Nigel’s music for the concert hall includes the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, commissioned by HRH The Prince of Wales in memory of his grandmother, and premièred and recorded by internationally-renowned pianist Lang Lang; AChristmas Overture commissioned by John Rutter and premièred by the RPO at the Royal Albert Hall; Jubilate Deo commissioned by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and A Celebration Overture commissioned by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. His music for symphonic wind band is played worldwide, and includes commissions from the Royal Air Force and the Band of the Coldstream Guards.

Nigel was honoured to be asked to arrange and direct the music for Her Majesty the Queen’s private 90th birthday celebration at Windsor Castle, and has recently received an Honorary Fellowship from St.Catharine’s College, Cambridge. More at www.myramusic.co.uk